More than 600 killed in Kobane ground fighting: monitor

Graves of Kurdish people killed fighting alongside People's Protection Units against Islamic State jihadists for the control of the mainly-Kurdish Syrian key town of Kobane, Sanliurfa province, on October 15, 2014 (AFP Photo/Aris Messinis)

Beirut (AFP) - Ground fighting alone has killed more than 600 combatants since Islamic State group jihadists launched an offensive on the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Kobane a month ago, a monitoring group said Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said its toll did not include the "several hundred" IS fighters that the Pentagon says have been killed in US-led air strikes in and around Kobane.

Between September 16 and midnight (2100 GMT) on Wednesday a total of 662 people were killed in ground fighting, said the Britain-based monitoring group, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria.